Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-09-17
American Forestry.
y Robert Dooelass. wautegan, M


American forestry is yet in its infanc
and has no written history; therefore I an
requested to give my own experience ant
observations. The subject OF forestr.
never entered my thoughts until the sum
mer OF 1850, while reading Andrew Jack
son Downing's work on Landscape Gar
dening and Ornamental Trees, worl
just published at the time. Referring tx
the European Larch, he mentioned tn,
Duke of Athops plantation in Scotland
and concluded by saying: "AIthougf
nothing has been done in this country il
the. way of planting trees for timber, yet
the time will surely come when they must
be planted"
It is not probable that 1 would have
given this quotation more than one pass
ing thought, had it not been that had
made long journey westward the year
previous, and after passing through a
forest belt about three miles in width on
the western shore OF Lake Michigan, all
the timber Travelled through In the next
two Thousand miles, if placed together,
would fall far short OF making another
three mile belt. Consequently, [ came to
the conclusion that the time had already
come when they should be planted. |
read every work could procure published
in English, touching on European forest
ny; elaborate accounts of the Duke OF
Athol's Larch plantations, the planting OF
the Culbin lands in Scotland; Bremon-
tiers planting on the Coast of France, etc.
I imported seeds of Pinns Maritima with
which to initiate Bremontier, Larch and
Scotch pine seeds in imitation of the Duke
of Athol, John Grigor, and others. / test
ed the European methods of moor plant
ing and planting on unplowed lands, on a
very extensive scale, after having pur-
chased large plat of barren land on
which to carry out these experiments, and,
Judging from their accounts, I succeeded
as well as they did.
Growing Seedlings in Forests.-I
also experimental on very large scale, in
imitation of their methods of growing
coniferous seedlings in open glades in the
forest and in this succeed perfectly if it
can be called success where nothing is
gained: We can grow better coniferous
seedlings in two years in this nursery,
than can be grown in three years in open
ings in the forest. In Europe, where
manual labor is cheaper than horse labor,
and where time is apparently of no con-
sequence when applied to the growing of
forests, probably the growing of seedlings
in the forest is the cheaper way. Their
methods of planting trees In unprepared
lands is we'll worthy of imitation in many
parts of this country, especially in
New England, and wherever there are
broken and waste lands, which can not be
brought under the pillow; but on our west
ern prairies it is entirely out of the ques-
ton. Trees can not be made to grow
planted in prairie sod, and when the sod
is subdued, prairie weeds will grow many
feet higher than the trees, IL the land is
not cultivated; and if they live through
the first season, the second and third sea-
sons will assuredly destroy them.
During all these years, occupied in
making the experiments alluded to, kept
on reading everything could procure
touching upon European forestry, and
found that there foresters differed inopin-
ion very much as we do here. The more
/ experimented, the more I became con-
WINGED that system of forestry must be
adopted better adapted to the climate and
the immediate wants of this country; that
the European modes of planting trees on
upprepared lands for the benefit of the
next generation, and the next while very
good in isolated cases, is altogether too
slow for this country, In general way.
Therefore determined on purchasing
tract of land on a western prairie, and
planting forest, to see how cheaply and
expeditiously it could be planted and
grown.
1 incidentally mentioned my plans to a
gentleman who took a deep interest in
forestry. He said that if I had faith in
forestry as an investment, he presumed [
would be willing to take section of prai-
RE and plant forest, taking all the re-
sponsibility, and take pay for it when [
delivered it to the contracting party in
condition to take care of itself without
further care or cultivation, and if so, to
draw I'D contract. I did so, STIMULATING
that we should be paid the actual cost of
preparing the prairie after it had been
broken, and less than the amount at
which we were selling the trees in the
nursery, to be paid after the trees had
been planted, all else to run until the time
we delivered the plantations on the con-
tract, after the trees had reached height
of five to six feet, and were shading the
ground so as to need no further cultiva-
ton.
m0tlOuo fAAOptOO' AltCl oAPCil-
menting in different ways, We have adopt
ed the following mode:
Break the prairie in June, or at the
time the grass is in the most thrifty state
ofgrowth. Break quite shallow, not deep
er than two, or at most, three inches, as
the greater the amount of succulent
growth and the shallower the breaking,
the more surely will the sod be killed in
the summer Late in August, and during
September of the same year, we turn the
sod over lengthwise of the furrow, and
deep enough to bury the sod and leave
two or three inches of earth over the en-
tire surface. If it is not designed to plant
in the autumn, we leave the ground in
this condition until the following spring,
when the harrow and roller will put the
land in excellent condition for planting.
If for fall planting, We have the small tree
digger run under the Seeding, gagged so
as to cut the roots to the proper length
for planting, and while the teams are